“Hope For Haiti Now” – a global telethon.

“Hope For Haiti Now” is something of a first.  A global telethon that  will truly be seen worldwide.

CNN International will be airing the 2 hour telethon at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 0100 GMT / 0200 CET.  It is also being aired internationally on National Geographic Channels around the world and MTV channels around the world, including China.

In Canada, the CBC and CTV are both airing the telethon.  So far, I have heard nothing about any UK or Irish terrestrial broadcasters taking the telethon.  US Local broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS, are airing the telethon at 8pm local time, except in the Central time zone where it airs at 7pm. 

Any further news on broadcasters airing the telethon, I’ll let you know.

Keith Olbermann refutes Brown smears

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NBR without Paul Kangas, but with a new look

On December 31st 2009, an era ended at Nightly Business Report when co-anchor and one of the founding team there, Paul Kangas, retired after just over 30 years at NBR.

He started as the Stocks anchor back in 1979, when WPBT first produced The Nightly Business Report.  Linda O’Byron and Merwin Sigale were the original anchors.  Susie Gharib joined NBR in 1998, and for nearly 12 years, they were the team bringing the world of business news every day to an appreciative American and later global audience through the internet.

Tom Hudson, also of Chicago based syndicated programmer “First Business” is now co-anchor in Miami, taking over from Paul Kangas, but it would be impossible to “replace” him.

However, that’s not the only change.  A new anchor, a new format, though some elements have remained exactly the same, a new studio set, which is entirely virtual, and a new graphic look, NBR has undergone a massive overhaul that wouldn’t have been necessary otherwise.  But because it was the end of an era, NBR needed to do something that would catch people’s attention.  And whilst the blogosphere hasn’t been hot with the new look, Newscast Studio has some info, though little is really known.